It's time to examine what flows out of our hands in ministry.

The call was from a pastor I'd known for years. I had always appreciated his heart. Every Sunday during communion he would pray and gently lay his hands on each person's head. Now, however, his voice was troubled. He asked if we could meet at his church and I agreed.

As we sat in his office he confessed, "I started smoking. No one knows, not even my wife. I only smoke when I'm by myself in the car."

"Well, I've heard worse things," I answered, relieved that he wasn't confessing a real sin."

He continued. "I know smoking is wrong, but that's not what's troubling me. Within three weeks after I lit my first cigarette, I was approached on four separate occasions by different people I had prayed for. It was incredible--each person privately confessed they had suddenly developed a craving for cigarettes! As I laid my hands upon them to bless them, I had also been imparting to them my sin."

This, indeed, was more serious. If four people out of a church of 200 were willing to seek help, how many more might be struggling with the same problem but not reaching for help? We prayed together and I encouraged him to be honest with the church about his smoking. I added, however, that if he wasn't going to tell the congregation, the least he should do is stop laying his hands on their heads.

That event occurred over 16 years ago, but it isn't isolated. Another incident occurred with a sister in Christ who was ministering to a man in our church. Recently divorced, this fellow was new to the things of the Lord and, though he was now regularly attending church, he had yet to receive the Holy Spirit's gift of speaking in tongues. One evening, under the pretense of wanting to pray for him to receive "the baptism," she took him to her home. After encouraging him to trust her, she laid her hands upon his head and prayed. In a little while, he indeed, began to pray in tongues. Yet, two hours later he found himself in bed with the woman.

A couple weeks later, the woman candidly confessed her sin to my wife and me. Not only did she admit she had seduced this young man, she said she could actually tell when her thoughts degenerated to lust and the exact point when a spirit of lust passed through her hands and entered the man!

I can't explain theologically how such a thing can happen. I know that pure water passing through a rusty pipe will be stained. Regardless, it frightens me that a Christian can lay hands on someone's head and impart evil.

Let me relate one more incident. Seeking to upgrade my marriage to a higher level, I once asked a minister friend to pray for me. He laid his hands on my head and prayed a perfectly "Christian" prayer. The result, however, was that a flood of impure thoughts also entered my mind through his hands. I hadn't immediately discerned the origin of this warfare until, three days later, I asked the preacher if he had been struggling with an unclean spirit. He admitted he was and together we broke the power of this battle. I then warned him to never lay hands on anyone while unrepentant sin was active in his heart.

The Bible identifies the act of laying one's hands upon another's head and praying as an important part of Christian ministry (see Mk 16:18;1 Tim 4:14; Acts 8:17;13:3). This form of blessing was first practiced in the Old Testament (Gen 48:14; Ex 29:10; etc.). In fact, the Hebrew word translated "ordain" means "to fill the hands."

Today, with renewal and revival breaking forth in many places, the ministry of "laying on of hands" is more visibly a part of evangelical Christianity than any time in the last century. While I do not want to restrain the work of the Holy Spirit, I believe we need to carefully prepare ourselves, as ministers, to represent Jesus. For whatever is in our spirit, whether good or bad, has the potential to flow through our hands.